Barbara Walters Hospitalized After Inauguration Weekend Fall















01/21/2013 at 09:30 AM EST







Barbara Walters


Mark VonHolden/DMIPhoto.com/FilmMagic


The Inauguration festivities took a tough turn for at least one veteran newswoman.

Barbara Walters, 83, fell Saturday night on a step at the residence of the British Ambassador to the United States, Peter Westmacott, and was hospitalized, the Associated Press reported.

ABC spokesman Jeffrey Schneider said Walters, who cut her forehead, was taken to a Washington, D.C., hospital for treatment and was alert after the fall, "telling everyone what to do, which we all take as a very positive sign," he said.

Walters had been scheduled to contribute to ABC's coverage of the second-term inauguration of President Barack Obama, who is set to give a speech during formal ceremonies Monday.

Walters, who made history in 1976 when she become the first female network anchor to earn a $1 million salary, has remained vibrant after more than 30 years in the news business. Her show, The View, which she created in 1997, has continued to be a hit along with her annual special, The 10 Most Fascinating People.

In May 2010, Walters underwent successful heart surgery, and returned to The View in September of that year, pronouncing herself "fine."

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Flu season fuels debate over paid sick time laws


NEW YORK (AP) — Sniffling, groggy and afraid she had caught the flu, Diana Zavala dragged herself in to work anyway for a day she felt she couldn't afford to miss.


A school speech therapist who works as an independent contractor, she doesn't have paid sick days. So the mother of two reported to work and hoped for the best — and was aching, shivering and coughing by the end of the day. She stayed home the next day, then loaded up on medicine and returned to work.


"It's a balancing act" between physical health and financial well-being, she said.


An unusually early and vigorous flu season is drawing attention to a cause that has scored victories but also hit roadblocks in recent years: mandatory paid sick leave for a third of civilian workers — more than 40 million people — who don't have it.


Supporters and opponents are particularly watching New York City, where lawmakers are weighing a sick leave proposal amid a competitive mayoral race.


Pointing to a flu outbreak that the governor has called a public health emergency, dozens of doctors, nurses, lawmakers and activists — some in surgical masks — rallied Friday on the City Hall steps to call for passage of the measure, which has awaited a City Council vote for nearly three years. Two likely mayoral contenders have also pressed the point.


The flu spike is making people more aware of the argument for sick pay, said Ellen Bravo, executive director of Family Values at Work, which promotes paid sick time initiatives around the country. "There's people who say, 'OK, I get it — you don't want your server coughing on your food,'" she said.


Advocates have cast paid sick time as both a workforce issue akin to parental leave and "living wage" laws, and a public health priority.


But to some business owners, paid sick leave is an impractical and unfair burden for small operations. Critics also say the timing is bad, given the choppy economy and the hardships inflicted by Superstorm Sandy.


Michael Sinensky, an owner of seven bars and restaurants around the city, was against the sick time proposal before Sandy. And after the storm shut down four of his restaurants for days or weeks, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars that his insurers have yet to pay, "we're in survival mode."


"We're at the point, right now, where we cannot afford additional social initiatives," said Sinensky, whose roughly 500 employees switch shifts if they can't work, an arrangement that some restaurateurs say benefits workers because paid sick time wouldn't include tips.


Employees without sick days are more likely to go to work with a contagious illness, send an ill child to school or day care and use hospital emergency rooms for care, according to a 2010 survey by the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center. A 2011 study in the American Journal of Public Health estimated that a lack of sick time helped spread 5 million cases of flu-like illness during the 2009 swine flu outbreak.


To be sure, many employees entitled to sick time go to work ill anyway, out of dedication or at least a desire to project it. But the work-through-it ethic is shifting somewhat amid growing awareness about spreading sickness.


"Right now, where companies' incentives lie is butting right up against this concern over people coming into the workplace, infecting others and bringing productivity of a whole company down," said John A. Challenger, CEO of employer consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.


Paid sick day requirements are often popular in polls, but only four places have them: San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and the state of Connecticut. The specific provisions vary.


Milwaukee voters approved a sick time requirement in 2008, but the state Legislature passed a law blocking it. Philadelphia's mayor vetoed a sick leave measure in 2011; lawmakers have since instituted a sick time requirement for businesses with city contracts. Voters rejected a paid sick day measure in Denver in 2011.


In New York, City Councilwoman Gale Brewer's proposal would require up to five paid sick days a year at businesses with at least five employees. It wouldn't include independent contractors, such as Zavala, who supports the idea nonetheless.


The idea boasts such supporters as feminist Gloria Steinem and "Sex and the City" actress Cynthia Nixon, as well as a majority of City Council members and a coalition of unions, women's groups and public health advocates. But it also faces influential opponents, including business groups, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who has virtually complete control over what matters come to a vote.


Quinn, who is expected to run for mayor, said she considers paid sick leave a worthy goal but doesn't think it would be wise to implement it in a sluggish economy. Two of her likely opponents, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and Comptroller John Liu, have reiterated calls for paid sick leave in light of the flu season.


While the debate plays out, Emilio Palaguachi is recovering from the flu and looking for a job. The father of four was abruptly fired without explanation earlier this month from his job at a deli after taking a day off to go to a doctor, he said. His former employer couldn't be reached by telephone.


"I needed work," Palaguachi said after Friday's City Hall rally, but "I needed to see the doctor because I'm sick."


___


Associated Press writer Susan Haigh in Hartford, Conn., contributed to this report.


___


Follow Jennifer Peltz at http://twitter.com/jennpeltz


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European shares test two-year highs, yen volatile before BOJ

LONDON (Reuters) - European shares inched towards two-year highs and German Bunds dipped on Monday, as a political attempt to break a budget impasse in the United States and expectations of aggressive Japanese stimulus bolstered the appetite for shares.


U.S. House Republican leaders said on Friday they would seek to pass a three-month extension of federal borrowing authority in the coming days to buy time for the Democrat-controlled Senate to pass a plan to shrink budget deficits.


European shares <.fteu3> were supported by the news <.eu>, but with no clear response from the Democrats and a thin session expected due to a market holiday in the United States, the impact on assets such as bonds and commodities was limited.


By 1400 GMT London's FTSE 100 <.ftse>, Paris's CAC-40 <.fchi> and Frankfurt's DAX <.gdaxi> were up 0.3 to 0.4 percent, leaving the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 within touching distance of a two-year high and MSCI's world index <.miwd00000pus> steady at a 20-month high. <.l><.eu/>


Expectations that the Bank of Japan will deliver a bold monetary easing plan at the end of its two-day meeting on Tuesday also supported shares and created choppy conditions in the currency market.


According to sources familiar with the BoJ's thinking, the government of new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the central bank have agreed to set 2 percent inflation as a new target, supplanting a softer 1 percent 'goal'.


The yen, which has fallen 13 percent against the dollar over the last two months as the shift in Japanese policy has taken shape, touched a new 2-1/2 year low in early trading but then firmed as traders cut short positions given the BOJ has often fallen short of market expectations.


"Investors are being mindful that the moves we have seen over the course of the last month or two are just worth locking in at least until we understand how the BOJ are really going to play in the future," said Jeremy Stretch, head of currency strategy at CIBC World Markets.


CURRENCY WARS


Japanese equities have surged in recent weeks in anticipation of a more aggressive monetary policy stance, but not everyone is happy.


The slump in the yen has prompted Russia's deputy central bank governor to warn of a new round of 'currency wars' and the medium-term risk of running ultra-loose monetary policies is likely to be a theme of the World Economic Forum in Davos, which opens on Wednesday.


With little in the way of economic data or debt issuance and U.S. markets shut for the Martin Luther King public holiday, the rest of the day was expected to be a fairly quite for investors.


Ahead of the first European finance ministers' meeting of the year, most euro zone government bonds were trading virtually flat and the euro was steady at $1.3316.


Market pressure on Europe is now less intense thanks to the European Central Bank's promise to prevent a collapse of the euro. Policymakers are set to discuss Cyprus's plight and plans for the euro zone's bailout fund to directly recapitalize banks.


"Negotiations will be complex, and a final decision is unlikely to emerge soon. Risks for sovereign spreads in the periphery should be limited, but we have some concerns that the long-term solution may fall short of what a real banking union needs," said UniCredit economist Marco Valli.


POLITICAL GAME


The efforts by Republican lawmakers to give the U.S. government leeway to pay its bills for another three months dented demand for safe haven assets and pushed German government bond yields near the top of this year's range.


The U.S. Treasury needs congressional authorization to raise the current $16.4 trillion limit on U.S. debt sometime between mid-February and early March. A failure to achieve that could lead to a debt default.


"This is part of the political game, it remains to be seen whether the Democrats will accept it," KBC strategist Piet Lammens said, adding that investors' working scenario was that a solution to raise the ceiling would be eventually found anyway.


One of the key factors that drove 2-year German yields higher last week was also the prospect of sizeable early repayments of the 1 trillion euros euro zone banks took from the ECB roughly a year ago.


The central bank will publish on Friday how much banks plan to return at the optional first repayment date on January 30. A Reuters poll on Monday showed around 100 billion euros are expected to be repaid although some predict it could be as high as 250 billion.


OIL OVERSUPPLY


German markets showed no reaction after the country's centre-left opposition party edged Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives from power in a regional election on Sunday, reviving its flagging hopes for September's national election.


Oil prices took their cues from a report in the United States at the end of last week that showed consumer sentiment at its weakest in a year as a result of the uncertainty surrounding the country's debt crisis.


Concerns about demand overshadowed supply disruption fears reinforced by the Islamist militant attack and hostage-taking at a gas plant in Algeria, a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.


Brent futures were down by 40 cents to $111.47 per barrel by mid-afternoon. U.S. crude shed 43 cents to $95.13 per barrel after touching a four-month high last week.


"The over-riding fundamental feeling in the market is that crude oil is over-supplied in 2013," said Tony Nunan, an oil risk manager at Mitsubishi.


Last week's data showing a pick-up in the Chinese economy helped keep growth-sensitive copper prices steady at roughly $8,056 an ounce. Gold, meanwhile, reversed Friday's losses to stand at $1,688 an ounce.


(Additional reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Marious Zaharia and Anooja Debnath; Editing by Peter Graff)



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The Lede Blog: Bulgarian Politician Faces Off With Gunman During Televised Conference

A man climbed onstage and attempted to fire a gas pistol Saturday at the leader of the country’s ethnic Turkish political party while he was giving a speech at his party’s annual conference in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria.

The gun misfired, according to a BBC report citing Bulgarian officials, and Ahmed Dogan, the leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, was not harmed. Video of the incident shows Mr. Dogan pushing the gunman’s hand, then diving away as other people at the conference wrestle the man to the floor, then punch and kick him repeatedly. The gun, a small gas pistol, lies nearby at the feet of shocked onlookers.

“A gas pistol is a nonlethal weapon used for self-defense,” The Associated Press reported, “but experts say when fired from close range it can cause life-threatening injuries.”

The gunman was arrested, the news agency said, identifying him as “25-year-old Oktai Enimehmedov, a Bulgarian national and ethnic Turk, from the coastal city of Burgas.” The motive for the attack was not immediately clear. The report said the assailant was also carrying two knives.

Mr. Dogan’s party represents ethnic Turks and other Muslims, according to Reuters, who make up “12 percent of Bulgaria’s 7.3 million-strong population.”

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Why Google Isn’t Scared of Facebook’s Graph Search






Facebook may have just released a major search product that many are saying “declares war” on Google or may at least put the social network “on a collision course” with the search giant, but Google CEO Larry Page doesn’t sound all that worried about the new competition. Because who said Facebook and Google couldn’t get along someday? In an interview for the new issue of Wired published just two days after Facebook’s Graph Search came out to so-so reviews, Page tells Steve Levy that Facebook is “doing a really bad job on their products.” But before you laugh off that swipe — Google Buzz flopped, Google killed Reader, and Google+ has a loyal but relatively small user base — Page wants to remind everyone that Facebook isn’t direct competition, that these two Silicon Valley giants are too big for either to fail. “We’re actually doing something different,” Page tells Levy. “I think it’s outrageous to say that there’s only space for one company in these areas.”


RELATED: Three Things Google+ Can Learn from Myspace






That’s not to say Page isn’t making Google go social, or that Facebook isn’t in his rearview mirror. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has long talked about the rise of social search, and Page has taken a vested interest of late in getting people to use Google+ — even if they don’t want to. In an attempt to conquer the space, direct orders from Page forcefully integrated Google’s social network into its main search results… and pretty much everywhere else its products touch. If it were up to Larry Page, Google would require a Google+ account just to read reviews. His evaluation of Google+ as it stands? “I’m very happy with how it has gone. We’re working on a lot of really cool stuff. A lot of it has been copied by our competitors, so I think we’re doing a good job.”


RELATED: FTC Is Officially Looking into Google’s Self-Promoting Search Features


Critics might beg to differ — Google+ is often referred to as a lesser “Facebook copycat” from the search king — but critics are now comparing Facebook’s search product (which was announced before the Wired interview with Page was conducted) to Google’s main offering. And from a product standpoint, Facebook may have yet to train its users to give Graph Search what it needs to be great. Furthermore, business analysts seem to agree that Facebook’s social recommendation engine won’t hurt Google’s core business … in the near future. But Zuckerberg said at Tuesday’s announcement that Facebook wasn’t focused on the business side of Graph Search just now — even if it does offer huge advertising potential. At the same time, Graph Search could take away eyeballs (and ad dollars) from Google. If Facebook, with its friend-powered engine, ends up giving “better” results than Google for recommendations on restaurants, travel, books, music, and movies — a domination Google is still fighting anti-trust charges over — then why end up Googling at all?


RELATED: The New Google+ Aims to Perfect Procrastination


Well, even Page might think Facebook and Google can complement each other — sort of. To wit, he asked Levy: “For us to succeed, is it necessary for some other company to fail? No.” As Zuckerberg said on Tuesday, “our mission is to make the world more open” by giving people tools to connect. And Google’s stated mission ”is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Are those so similar that they can’t get along? After all, that could be the future of search: You go to Facebook to see what your friends and the people you trust have to say, and then you head to Google for the facts. Of course, neither Facebook or Google wants the future that way, exactly: Facebook has actually teamed up with Microsoft to complement Graph Search, sending people to Bing for those fact-finding, Google-style queries; Google, meanwhile, as Google+ as its social-search equivalent of Graph Searching. And users don’t really want to go to so many different places for basic information that’s built to make their lives easier. Part of the reason people have stuck with Google, despite all of its privacy and anti-trust issues, is that the company’s ultimately done a really good job on their products — GMail, Google Drive, Reader, and their fellow “apps” have become an integral part of our Internet lives. Facebook wants that role, and if social search ends up working — well, then why not chat on Facebook, email (and make phone calls) with Messenger, sext with Poke, and read your news via the News Feed? 


RELATED: Why Google Really Wants You to Use Google+ This Year


Of course, Page said all this stuff weeks ago. And who knows how Graph Search is going over at Google headquarters. Maybe he just he meant a different product that was so… bad. Or maybe he really just doesn’t get Poke? Either way, Larry Page knew this fight was coming. The whole world did.


Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Jenna von Oy Blogs: The Magic of the Holidays

Jenna von Oy's Blog: The Magic of Christmas
In front of the Christmas Tree – Courtesy Jenna von Oy


Celebrity blogger Jenna von Oy is a new mama!


Best known for her roles as Six on Blossom and Stevie on The Parkers, von Oy is also a musician who has released two albums and is set to publish a book, The Betweeners.


von Oy, 35, wed Brad Bratcher on Oct. 10, 2010, and resides in Nashville with her husband and five dogs.


They welcomed their first child, daughter Gray Audrey, on May 21. She is now almost 8 months old.


In her latest blog, von Oy reflects on the spirit of Christmas — and celebrating the holiday with Gray.


You can find her on Facebook and Twitter @JennavonOy, as well as posting on her weekly blog, The Cradle Chronicles.


I realize it’s January now, and you’ve probably taken down your holiday lights. You’ve stowed the stockings, eaten all of the cookies and put away the gifts. But in my house, the Christmas spirit is still alive and well. Christmas has not left the building. Our tree is still whiling away the hours in our living room, and it isn’t because I’m lazy or haven’t found time to return everything to the attic. I just wanted to wake up to it for one more week, to enjoy the season a bit longer, to absorb the hope and happiness it brings.


Christmastime has always been truly magical for me. I believe it isn’t just a time of year; it’s a state of being. Regardless of your spiritual upbringing, it’s a season for togetherness, joy, peace, and goodwill. It’s a time to treasure those you love, in a profoundly meaningful way … especially your children. There’s no other season that incites wonder quite like Christmas, and seeing it through the eyes of my daughter for the first time was nothing short of miraculous. We have begun the holiday memories she will think back on fondly one day.


It inspires me to reminisce about my own special Christmas moments, especially those shared with my siblings: penning wish lists for Santa, trudging through snow to choose the “jolliest” tree we could find, hanging stockings on our mantle, putting our boots out in celebration of the German holiday of Saint Nicholas (the boots would get filled with nuts, fruit and other goodies), baking cookies and over-decorating them, festooning our tree in the ornaments we’ve collected each year since we were born, and dancing maniacally to “The Nutcracker Suite.”


I miss the winter wonderland of our East Coast upbringing: ice skating on the pond behind the home in which we were raised, watching snowflakes blanket the ground like frosting (it just begged for snowmen and snow angels to be made), sledding down our driveway in makeshift toboggans, and warming up in front of the fire with mugs of mulled cider. Those were the days!


But it isn’t all of the “deck the halls” and “fa-la-la” that made my spirit bright. Most importantly, the holiday season meant time spent with my family. It meant hunkering down out of the bitter cold and playing board games, while Burl Ives sang “A Holly Jolly Christmas” in the background. It meant attending midnight mass on Christmas Eve, and listening to my dad’s beautiful voice resonate from the choir. It was the joy of finding the perfect gift for my sister or brothers, and the glee of watching them unwrap it.


Even in adulthood, I find the Christmas magic hasn’t gone anywhere. It’s still in my heart, though its style has morphed a bit. Now I get to celebrate with my own little family, embracing long-held traditions while creating new ones with my husband and daughter.


I thought it might be fun to share some of them with you. I warn you, if you are feeling a bit of “bah humbug” and want Christmas to just go away already, this may not be the blog for you … I’ll begin with our “infamous Christmas tape.”


Jenna von Oy's Blog: The Magic of Christmas
Me back in 1980 – Courtesy Jenna von Oy


Many years ago, my siblings and I acquired a cassette tape of a schizophrenic compilation of Christmas music. It contains everything from Mahalia Jackson’s “Go Tell It On The Mountain,” to Johnny Mathis singing “Sleigh Ride,” to the Philadelphia Orchestra playing the “Hallelujah Chorus.” Like I said, it’s a wacky mix of tunes. Regardless, it’s our auditory mascot during Christmas. A year without hearing this crazy collection of songs would be a sad year, indeed.


The four of us used to jam to it while trimming the tree, and it was almost always accompanied by our crooning at the top of our lungs and dancing wildly around the living room. This was typically followed by a period of breathlessness and tearful laughter. My poor parents either hid or videotaped it. Want to know how to shed the pounds from over-indulging in Christmas cookies? The routine I just mentioned will definitely do it. I’ll spare you any sort of visual, but take my word for it … it’s a special breed of insanity aerobics.


The calamity often occurred into the wee hours of the morning, since we were generally high on sugar when it all went down. We found that the addition of hot cocoa or eggnog greatly improved our stamina. I’ve long suspected this display of madness would frighten away potential suitors or spouses, but I’m happy to report Brad has stuck around despite this tradition. He has witnessed it on several occasions and, while he has declined any participation in it, he hasn’t disowned me yet. :)


I must admit it wasn’t quite the same this year without my siblings around to share in my decorating dance-a-thon. Sadly, leaping across the kitchen via Skype just doesn’t have the same effect. This didn’t stop me, however, from showing my daughter what the hype is all about. I transferred that wonderfully awful cassette tape to my iPod, and Gray and I danced like no one was watching. She was all smiles and laughter. I can only hope the Christmas enthusiasm runs through her veins, as it does mine!


Another family tradition involves our ongoing ornament collection. My mom began the custom of gifting each of us kids with a yearly ornament, beginning at our births. The keepsakes have always served as a reminder of the wonderful memories we shared that year, often depicting something meaningful we experienced. For example, the first year I visited France, I received a mini Eiffel Tower to suspend from the pine branches. When I played “Molly” in a regional production of Annie at the age of six, I got a Little Orphan Annie ornament. It’s neat to go back through the years to see what stories our tree adornments conjure up!


Brad and I are continuing this collection with Gray, and she ended up with several ornaments this year. I hope they will always be a reminder of her first Christmas, and I look forward to passing them along to her once she is married and has a family of her own.


This tradition actually gave way to a new one as well … A few weeks before Christmas, once our main tree was already dressed and lit with the normal accoutrements, Gray got to pick out a smaller tree to host all of her special ornaments. She also had the honor of placing the first decoration on the larger one. Now that Christmas is over, we are going to find a spot in our yard to plant the sapling. I think it’s a great way to show her the importance of giving back to the earth, and it will be a neat project for us as a family.


Jenna von Oy's Blog: The Magic of Christmas
Bratcher Family Photo 2012 – Lila McCann Photography


The side benefit of this new tradition is that it helps to satisfy my need for a real evergreen in the house. Though I grew up in a family where we never dreamed of putting up a plastic tree, I’ve had to switch gears a bit in the past few years. Two words for you: Basset Hound. Evidently Christmas trees are the equivalent of a five-star gourmet meal to our sweet Mia, and the ornaments are her canine caviar. She will take any opportunity to snack on the branches if they are real pine, which we found out the hard way.


Needless to say, we’ve had a huge plastic deal ever since. At least the smaller tree that Gray chose fits on a tabletop, where it is out of reach! Mia’s Scrooge-like master plan has officially been thwarted. Now if I could just keep our pug, Bruiser, from unwrapping presents before Christmas morning…


So now that you know some of our special yearly customs, here’s an idea of how Gray’s first Christmas went down: I suppose it began the first week of December, with our official Christmas photo shoot. Though attempting to get all three of us to smile simultaneously was documentary-worthy, I’m thrilled to say it actually happened.


I give full credit to the patience of our photographer, Lila, who also happens to be one of my best friends. Since she has two children of her own, she’s well aware of the trials and tribulations of photographing a child in the throes of the naptime hour. Fun was had by all, especially when a tantrum began rearing its ugly head as we approached the agreed upon location. Granted, Gray immediately perked up when she saw the camera turn its focus onto her. Go figure.


My mom spent the first two weeks of December with us, and we got to bake cookies and peanut brittle together … Okay, I’m lying. I spent the time trying to keep my daughter’s hands out of the flour and butter, while my mom wound up doing the bulk of the work. I think I got more exercise during the whole affair, but my mom put in the baking time. She has been generous enough to tell everyone we made the tasty treats together, but I thought I should set the record straight; I was on baby duty. The cookies were mostly her doing. (Thank you, Mommy!)


The neat part was that she got to be here for a plethora of Gray’s first holiday experiences, such as picking out the baby tree, decorating the house in its holiday attire, and the aforementioned family photo extravaganza. It was a very special time for us, and made it feel a lot more like Christmas. (I should also point out that the number of gifts Gray wound up getting virtually doubled in size, thanks to my mother and mother-in-law. Grandmas sure do love to spoil their grandbabies!)


One other adventure my mom got to be present for was Gray’s first picture with Santa. We waited until a weekday morning, to avoid crowds, and headed over to experience all that is jolly old St. Nick at the mall. I’ll be honest — my cynical side anticipated a fraud. I envisioned a scary, spiked eggnog-breathing, smoker’s cough-hacking, faux-bearded, senile, skinny guy in a fat suit, smiling at all of the children in a way that makes every mother’s stomach turn.


Jenna von Oy's Blog: The Magic of Christmas
First Picture with Santa – Worldwide Photography


I couldn’t have been farther off. This guy was the real deal. And when he said to Gray, “I’d take you to the North Pole if I could,” I actually believed he meant it in the sweetest way possible. Santa was the kindest man I could have asked for. And you know what? Gray knew it too. My little girl, who has been battling some serious bouts of separation anxiety, reached out for Santa like she’d known him all her life. The photographers said she was the first kid all day to smile for a photo … which made my day almost as much as it made theirs!


On Christmas morning, Bruiser demonstrated how presents should be opened (in his world: frenzied and with no regard for content…). Gray sort of got the hang of it, though next year will be more of a sight to see, I imagine. We took it easy with gifts this year … quality not quantity. Instead, our gifts were mostly in the form of time together, since my husband got a week off from work.


It was such a joy to cuddle up together on the sofa, even if it is nowhere near large enough to comfortably fit all of our human and canine family members. We watched time-treasured classics such as Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer and the original version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. In a very merry post-gift unwrapping fatigue, Gray fell asleep on her Daddy’s chest and took a little nap. Brad said it was the best Christmas present he could have received. Sometimes the most cherished gifts don’t come in a package tied with ribbon.


Moving on to a slightly less magical subject, many friends said they sneezed and vomited their way through the remainder of 2012. Thankfully, we made it through without getting sick. We were desperately trying to spread Christmas cheer instead of germs this year, which is often hard with young kids. I can’t remember the last time I didn’t lose my voice during the holidays, so I was thrilled to get through unscathed.


Then again, you ain’t heard nothin’ until you’ve heard my Darth Vader-esque rendition of “Joy To The World,” which I usually grace everyone with at the mass on Christmas Eve. It brings anything but joy to the world, I can promise you that. Instead, I was able to sing loud and proud this year. Gray even tried to join in! The irony? As I publish this blog, I’m plagued with a cold … at least it allowed me to ring in the New Year first.


Much to our dismay, no snow fell in advance of our holiday here in Nashville. We did not wake up to a white Christmas morning. However, we had just enough of a flurry in the days following, to don boots and gloves and let Gray experience her first snowfall. It was really only a minor dusting, but she was mesmerized and commenced “tap dancing” in the snow.


For those who are currently picturing some fantastic routine involving staccato wings and ball changes, being executed by world-class artists such as Savion Glover and Gregory Hines, you may want to rethink your visual. Our version consisted of my holding Gray’s body upright, while she shuffled her feet around. Snow and dirt were flying everywhere, but my kid was as happy as … well, a kid in snow.


Jenna von Oy's Blog: The Magic of Christmas
Gray’s first snow! – Courtesy Jenna von Oy


If you kept reading until the end of this post, I’m impressed. Santa’s list isn’t as lengthy as this month’s blog, so I hope you’ll forgive the verbosity. I guess I was swept up in the holiday magic and excitement. Perhaps my New Year’s resolution should include minimalizing my words? :)


I hope you and yours had a fantastic holiday, filled with love, laughter and endless blessings. We wish you many more in 2013, and pray you are surrounded by the Christmas spirit all year long!


Until next time,


– Jenna von Oy


More from Jenna’s PEOPLE.com blog series:


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More than 140 nations adopt treaty to cut mercury


GENEVA (AP) — A new and legally binding international treaty to reduce harmful emissions of mercury was adopted Saturday by more than 140 nations, capping four years of difficult negotiations but stopping short of some of the tougher measures that proponents had envisioned.


The new accord aims to cut mercury pollution from mining, utility plants and a host of products and industrial processes, by setting enforceable limits and encouraging shifts to alternatives in which mercury is not used, released or emitted.


Mercury, known to be a poison for centuries, is natural element that cannot be created or destroyed. It is released into the air, water and land from small-scale artisanal gold mining, coal-powered plants, and from discarded electronic or consumer products such as electrical switches, thermostats and dental amalgam fillings. Mercury compound goes into batteries, paints and skin-lightening creams.


Because it concentrates and accumulates in fish and goes up the food chain, mercury poses the greatest risk of nerve damage to pregnant women, women of child-bearing age and young children. The World Health Organization has said there are no safe limits for the consumption of mercury and its compounds, which can also cause brain and kidney damage, memory loss and language impairment.


A decade ago, Switzerland and Norway began pushing for an international treaty to limit mercury emissions, a process that culminated in the adoption of an accord Saturday after an all-night session that capped a weeklong conference in Geneva and previous such sessions over the past four years.


"It will help us to protect human health and the environment all over the world," Swiss environment ambassador Franz Perrez told a news conference.


But the treaty only requires that nations with artisanal and small-scale gold mining operations, one of the biggest sources of mercury releases, draw up national plans within three years of the treaty entering force to reduce and — if possible — eliminate the use of mercury in such operations. Governments also approved exceptions for some uses such as large measuring devices for which there are no mercury-free alternatives; vaccines where mercury is used as a preservative; and products used in religious or traditional activities.


Switzerland, Norway and Japan each contributed $1 million to get the treaty started, but U.N. officials say tens of millions more will be needed each year to help developing countries comply. The money would be distributed through the Global Environment Facility, an international funding mechanism.


The U.N. Environment Program said the treaty will be signed later this year in the southern Japanese city of Minamata, for which it is to be named. After that, 50 nations must ratify it before it comes into force, which officials predicted would happen in three to four years.


So-called Minimata disease, a severe neurological disorder caused by mercury poisoning, was discovered in the late 1950s because of methylmercury escaping from the city's industrial wastewater. The illness, which sickened people who ate contaminated fish, killed hundreds and left many more badly crippled. Some 12,000 people have demanded compensation from Japan's government.


"To agree on global targets is not easy to do," Achim Steiner, the executive director of the U.N. Environment Program, told reporters. "There was no delegation here that wished to leave Geneva without drafting a treaty."


Over the past 100 years, mercury found in the top 100 meters (yards) of the world's oceans has doubled, and concentrations in waters deeper than that have gone up by 25 percent, the U.N. environment agency says, while rivers and lakes contain an estimated 260 metric tons of mercury that was previously held in soils.


The treaty was originally blocked by powers such as the United States, but President Barack Obama's reversal of the U.S. position in early 2009 helped propel momentum for its adoption. China and India also played key roles in ensuring its passage; Asia accounts for just under half of all global releases of mercury.


"We have closed a chapter on a journey that has taken four years of often intense, but ultimately successful, negotiations and opened a new chapter toward a sustainable future," said Fernando Lugris, the Uruguayan diplomat who chaired the negotiations.


Some supporters of a new mercury treaty said they were not satisfied with the agreement.


Joe DiGangi, a science adviser with advocacy group IPEN, said that while the treaty is "a first step," it is not tough enough to achieve its aim of reducing overall emissions. For example, he said, there is no requirement that each country create a national plan for how it will reduce mercury emissions.


His group and some of the residents of Minamata have opposed naming the treaty for their city because they feel it does not do enough to fix the problem.


"This treaty should be called the 'Mercury Convention,' not the 'Minamata Convention," said Takeshi Yasuma, a Japanese activist. "Water pollution resulting in contaminated sediment and fish caused the Minamata tragedy, but the treaty contains no obligations to reduce mercury releases to water and no obligations to clean up contaminated sites."


Treaty proponents called it a good first step, however, and Steiner said the document would evolve over time and hopefully become a stronger instrument.


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Wall Street Week Ahead: Earnings, money flows to push stocks higher

NEW YORK (Reuters) - With earnings momentum on the rise, the S&P 500 seems to have few hurdles ahead as it continues to power higher, its all-time high a not-so-distant goal.


The U.S. equity benchmark closed the week at a fresh five-year high on strong housing and labor market data and a string of earnings that beat lowered expectations.


Sector indexes in transportation <.djt>, banks <.bkx> and housing <.hgx> this week hit historic or multiyear highs as well.


Michael Yoshikami, chief executive at Destination Wealth Management in Walnut Creek, California, said the key earnings to watch for next week will come from cyclical companies. United Technologies reports on Wednesday while Honeywell is due to report Friday.


"Those kind of numbers will tell you the trajectory the economy is taking," Yoshikami said.


Major technology companies also report next week, but the bar for the sector has been lowered even further.


Chipmakers like Advanced Micro Devices , which is due Tuesday, are expected to underperform as PC sales shrink. AMD shares fell more than 10 percent Friday after disappointing results from its larger competitor, Intel . Still, a chipmaker sector index <.sox> posted its highest weekly close since last April.


Following a recent underperformance, an upside surprise from Apple on Wednesday could trigger a return to the stock from many investors who had abandoned ship.


Other major companies reporting next week include Google , IBM , Johnson & Johnson and DuPont on Tuesday, Microsoft and 3M on Thursday and Procter & Gamble on Friday.


CASH POURING IN, HOUSING DATA COULD HELP


Perhaps the strongest support for equities will come from the flow of cash from fixed income funds to stocks.


The recent piling into stock funds -- $11.3 billion in the past two weeks, the most since 2000 -- indicates a riskier approach to investing from retail investors looking for yield.


"From a yield perspective, a lot of stocks still yield a great deal of money and so it is very easy to see why money is pouring into the stock market," said Stephen Massocca, managing director at Wedbush Morgan in San Francisco.


"You are just not going to see people put a lot of money to work in a 10-year Treasury that yields 1.8 percent."


Housing stocks <.hgx>, already at a 5-1/2 year high, could get a further bump next week as investors eye data expected to support the market's perception that housing is the sluggish U.S. economy's bright spot.


Home resales are expected to have risen 0.6 percent in December, data is expected to show on Tuesday. Pending home sales contracts, which lead actual sales by a month or two, hit a 2-1/2 year high in November.


The new home sales report on Friday is expected to show a 2.1 percent increase.


The federal debt ceiling negotiations, a nagging worry for investors, seemed to be stuck on the back burner after House Republicans signaled they might support a short-term extension.


Equity markets, which tumbled in 2011 after the last round of talks pushed the United States close to a default, seem not to care much this time around.


The CBOE volatility index <.vix>, a gauge of market anxiety, closed Friday at its lowest since April 2007.


"I think the market is getting somewhat desensitized from political drama given, this seems to be happening over and over," said Destination Wealth Management's Yoshikami.


"It's something to keep in mind, but I don't think it's what you want to base your investing decisions on."


(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos, additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak and Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Kenneth Barry)



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IHT Rendezvous: Can Armstrong Be Redeemed? How About Galliano?

LONDON — While Lance Armstrong was (not quite) baring his soul to Oprah Winfrey this week, a very different celebrity, the disgraced London fashion designer John Galliano, was taking a small step on the path to redemption.

Two years after he was ousted from Dior in the wake of his arrest for a drunken, anti-Semitic rant in a Paris bar, Mr. Galliano is to make a modest comeback at the New York design studio of Oscar de la Renta.

As Eric Wilson writes over at On the Runway, many had speculated that the man described as “the prince of romantic glamor” would never work in the fashion industry again after his downfall in 2011.

However, with the support of fashion luminaries like Anna Wintour and Grace Coddington of Vogue, he appears set for rehabilitation.

“As far as a comeback strategy, working for Mr. de la Renta in a casual capacity, practically an intern, is, in effect, a way of testing the waters,” Mr. Wilson writes.

The downfall of Mr. Galliano, born in Gibraltar and raised in London,  came after two patrons of a bar in the Marais district of Paris accused him of making an anti-Semitic slur.

An online video later surfaced that showed a previous incident in which a bleary Mr. Galliano told fellow customers in the same bar, “I love Hitler” and, “People like you would be dead.” “Your mothers, your forefathers” would all be “gassed,” he said.

All the more surprising, then, that among those who welcomed the 52-year-old designer’s return was Abraham H. Foxman, leader  of the Anti-Defamation League, the American anti-Semitism watchdog group.

Mr. Foxman said on Friday, “Mr. Galliano has worked arduously in changing his worldview and dedicated a significant amount of time to researching, reading and learning about the evils of anti-Semitism and bigotry.”

The Anti-Defamation League had met the designer on numerous occasions and said it hoped to work with him in the future as a spokesman against bigotry.

A Paris court fined Mr. Galliano €6,000, or $8,000, for racial insults after he offered his apologies, and last year President François Hollande of France stripped him of the Légion d’Honneur that he was awarded in 2009.

The designer’s behavior was widely blamed on drug and alcohol addiction, which he’s sought treatment for over the last two years.

“Under intense pressure to produce at least eight full collections a year, Galliano — like so many other artists — reached for sustenance and oblivion,” Suzy Menkes, the I.H.T.’s fashion editor, wrote in November.

Another celebrity who has admitted to turning to drugs, but for very different reasons, is Lance Armstrong, the disgraced American cycling superstar.

Summing up the response among cycling and anti-doping officials, my colleague Ian Austen wrote: “Many characterized Armstrong’s interview with Oprah Winfrey as being more self-serving than revelatory.”

Has Mr. Armstrong done enough to pave the way for an eventual comeback or were his television appearances indeed self-serving? And what about Mr. Galliano? Should his repentance for his unpardonable remarks lead to a second chance at success? Does either celebrity — or both — deserve redemption? Tell us what you think.

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Why does Michelle Obama need two Twitter accounts?






Michelle Obama is on Twitter! That was big news on Thursday, the first lady’s birthday. The White House announced that Mrs. Obama had launched a new Twitter account, @FLOTUS, and lots of folks chimed in with messages welcoming her to the world of micro-blogging social media.


But hold it – wasn’t she already on Twitter? We’ve been following @MichelleObama since the beginning of the 2012 presidential campaign. Is this a reboot, a dual account, or what? Is it the equivalent of the grand opening of a store that’s been in business for months?






Sort of, yes. Except it’s a retail establishment that has two branches kept separate for legal reasons.


RECOMMENDED: Michelle Obama: 10 quotes on her birthday


The invaluable Mashable has the full story here. The @MichelleObama feed is paid for and run by the Obama/Biden political campaign machinery. That’s why it was so active during the summer and fall, as it exhorted everybody to get out and vote, and in general pushed the fortunes of the incumbent presidential ticket. It’s an overtly political use of social media.


The first lady’s Pinterest site is run the same way. Most of those photos of her and her family, and favorite recipes (grilled peaches with yogurt and pistachios?), and exhortations about “why we vote” were put up by campaign staff.


Mrs. Obama’s new @FLOTUS handle reflects her official White House duties, however. It’s run by people from her office who are executive branch (and hence official US government) employees.


Legally speaking, @FLOTUS tweets will have to be stuff that deals with her official duties and the nation as a whole, as opposed to President Obama’s political fortunes. Thus on Thursday she tweeted “Join me and Barack for #MLK Day of Service” after thanking everyone for sending birthday wishes.


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Hmm. @FLOTUS has sent three tweets, and it’s got more than 78,000 followers. That’s a pretty good tweet-to-listener ratio.


Most of this social media stuff is done by staff, of course. The few that she sends herself are supposed to be signed “-mo.”


Is the White House actually good at social media? We think that question can be answered definitively only by someone more versed in the dark electronic arts than we are. But from our point of view, it’s a pretty shrewd operator. Take the White House petition site. You can put up a petition on anything, and if it reaches a certain signature level in a certain period of time, the White House will respond with its point of view.


Most of the coverage of this “We the People” effort has focused on the weird stuff: petitions for Texas to secede, to deport CNN’s Piers Morgan, and so forth. And responding to them has to be a pain for staff. Mother Jones has a piece on Friday in which anonymous staffers gripe about having to spend time actually writing about why the US won’t build a Death Star, and things like that.


But to us, “We the People” really is a clever technique for harvesting e-mail addresses. When creating an account to sign stuff, you can check whether you want to receive missives from the White House. Most of the petitions are in fact about real policy – the need for more or less gun control, for instance. What the White House may get out of this is a continually growing list of voter contact information segmented by policy interest. To push the president’s new gun policies, for instance, they may send targeted e-mails to pro-control addresses, urging them to contact Congress.


We think this because media organizations do the same thing with interactive questionnaires and quizzes. We figure out who’s interested in what kind of stories and we direct those subjects their way.


Surprised? Don’t be. Building brand loyalty – everybody’s got whole new ways of approaching this old problem in today’s Internet age.


RECOMMENDED: Betty Ford to Michelle Obama: How seven first ladies have changed the office


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